Kuro Neko
by marco polo
Summary: eh, I just wanted to put this up. Basicly, it's just this guy who's the new DADA teacher. not too exciting yet but hey, im just starting out.


Matthew Kuroneko sighed as he sped along in his brand new yellow mustang convertible, glancing every few seconds to the built in clock. Groaning, he wondered if the new car was worth the trouble that it was causing, although he knew the haircut was. He was supposed to go to his job interview an hour ago and he still needed to reach his train in time to get to his destination. Not especially good with math, he attempted to figure out how late he would be for his meeting, but eventually gave up. If he had only remembered to bring a calculator, he probably would have found it would take eight hours longer then expected to get to his interview. And that was eight hours too long.  
  
Tapping his foot, Matt blew his six inch long bangs out of his face. Never known to have a lot of patience, he gave up on his hair and pushed the gas just a tad bit more, going five miles over the speed limit but not caring. Seeing his house in view he forgot anything that involved not going over sixty miles per hour and sped up about thirty miles, putting the car into brake a little too early and not bothering to open the car door. Running up to the door, he pulled out a stick and pointed it at the doorknob. "Alohomora!" Matt shouted, and the door sprung open in return. Running up the stairs two at a time, he threw his door open and ran to his closet. Grabbing long black robes, dark blue shirts, dark blue headbands that looked more like strips of old shirts, and other articles of clothing, he threw them into a large trunk that was half open at the base of his bed. He then turned to his bookshelf and grabbed a few books, although none were what you could call "ordinary".  
  
"Alright, History of the Dark Arts, Unforgivable Curses, yada yada, throw this in, couldn't hurt…" He muttered to himself as he threw books over his head. Upon reaching one book, he stopped and straightened out, reading the book title out loud. "The Rise and Fall of Voldemort." He sighed and shook his head, packing it as well. "Too bad the old bloke's risen once again, that book's probably useless by now…" Matt shrugged, tossing the book over his shoulder into the trunk anyway.  
  
Matt straightened up, stretching. He threw his wand in the trunk and grabbed the handle, disappearing and reappearing by the side of his car with the trunk. He then grabbed the keys and threw them in the trunk as well, put up the hood, and disappeared once again, apparating in the middle of a crowd outside Kings Cross Station, sitting on top of his trunk.  
  
You see, Matthew Kuroneko wasn't normal, and the job he was trying out for wasn't exactly normal either. Matthew Kuroneko was a wizard.  
  
Matt ran a hand through his hair, which was six inches long where his bangs were and quite short on the rest of his head. He stood up on his trunk and glanced about the station, searching for platforms nine and ten. It wasn't exactly hard, finding the stations, because a group of wizards were standing between the two platforms as he looked. The wizards had their trunks on trolleys and would run between the two platforms, directly at the wall. As they did this it seemed as if they would crash right in the middle of this concrete wall, but Matt knew better; he himself had done this countless times when he had gone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, too. Running at the wall was the only way to get to platform 9 3/4, because the wall wasn't really a wall at all.  
  
Matt, of course, wasn't going to school. No, Matt was going to go and interview for the job opening there, for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He grinned, hoping that he would get this job, although he had to admit his chances were quite slim. After all, the headmaster was Albus Dumbledore, the only wizard that matched Voldemort at his powers. Taking a deep breath and reassuring himself that everything would work out, he apparated over to the wall, behind the group that had gathered there already.  
  
Actually being patient for once, Matt leaned against his trunk and nodded to some of the girls that passed by. This caused a lot of giggles amongst them, because the tanned, green-eyed boy was quite attractive, even if he would never admit it. He sighed and glanced around, hoping he wouldn't be back at this station for another seven months, or whenever the school term ended. He only noticed it was his turn to pass through the wall when somebody politely cleared their throat behind him, and somebody unpolitely screamed, "Get moving, ya fool!"  
  
Opening his mouth to say something back to the person, he shook his head and dragged his trunk along, muttering something about the "galah of a wizard" just before walking through the wall and stepping onto platform 9 3/4.  
  
Matt drew in his breath, having almost forgotten the beauty of the train. He frowned and wondered how the train had gotten back so fast, but then he remembered his ticket had been for seven in the morning. Sighing, it was three o'clock now, and he was two hours late for his meeting. Sitting on top of his trunk, he put his head in his hands; a teacher that was late for an interview could only hope that the interviewer didn't look for punctuality.  
  
***  
  
Harry had grown sick of waiting. He didn't care if his cousin, Dudley Dursley, needed to finish the last ten minutes of "Outrageous Injuries"; Harry needed to get to King's Cross Station before the train left at 3:54. Grabbing the handle of his trunk, he began to conjure up a little plan on how to get to the train station before departure time.  
  
As Harry walked over to his owl's cage, he sighed. Lord Voldemort was back, and it was his entire fault. How long would Hogwarts be safe? Trying not to think about this, he adverted his gaze up to the cards on his dresser. Shaking his head, he couldn't believe that his birthday had already come and gone so fast. Fifteen years old. He could barely believe it himself. Unable to make it to Diagon Alley, he was relieved when Ron had written him an owl saying he had gotten Harry his supplies (being as they were both fifth years, they're supplies list was the same, so Harry didn't need to waste time copying down the list of his needed items) and, after many arguments, Harry had finally been able to pay Ron back for all of his trouble.  
  
Harry clasped his hands together and took a few deep breaths. All right, he thought, I've got everything packed. Now for the bait.  
  
Harry bounded downstairs and into the living room. Dudley eyed him, curious as to what he was doing, and then glued his eyes back to the television set. Harry slowly walked over to the television then flicked it off.  
  
Dudley glared to Harry evilly, getting up as fast as his weight would allow him. Walking over to Harry, they looked each other in the eyes for a moment, then Dudley screamed.  
  
"MUUUUUUUM! HARRY SHUT THE TELEVISION OFF ON ME!"  
  
Harry's aunt Petunia, a very high-necked and nosy person, came running in at her son's scream and glared daggers at Harry. "What did you do to my likkle sweetums? I'm warning you, boy, we'll send you out onto the streets if you don't stop harassing my..."  
  
Harry grinned inwardly but put on a very hurt expression on the outside. "But, Aunt Petunia, I need to get to the train station. If I don't get there on time I can't go to school, I'll be stuck here for all year, and my godfather will be very upset that I'm not learning..."  
  
The mere mention of Sirius Black, the innocent escaped convict that was Harry's godfather (although only he and a few others knew he was innocent, and these few others did not include the Dursleys) had turned Petunia Dursley a pale shade of white. Turning to her son, she smiled sweetly. "N- now, Dudleykins, I'm sure you've already seen that episode a few times, and we need to get your cousin over to the train station right away. VERNON!" She screamed her husband's name and he came into the room.  
  
"Yes, Petunia? What is it?" He glanced from Dudley to his wife, ignoring the fact that Harry was in the room as well.  
  
"Well, y-you see, Vernon, Harry really needs to get to the train station, because he'll miss his train otherwise," Vernon didn't seem to care about any of this up until the next phrase was said, "and his godfather will be very, very upset."  
  
As Vernon turned as white as his wife, it was all Harry could do to keep from laughing out loud. His plan, miraculously, was working, and he grabbed a hold of his trunk as his uncle said the next few words Harry had been waiting for.  
  
"Alright, then, get in the car."  
  
As Harry was dropped off at King's Cross Station without a good bye or acknowledgement from his only family, he glanced to his watch for the time. 3:54. Harry groaned and quickly grabbed a trolley, heading for platform 9 3/4 as fast as he could.  
  
Looking down and forgetting to look in front of him, Harry crashed into somebody who was about to walk through the wall and onto the platform. Unfortunately, the person was his archenemy, Draco Malfoy.  
  
"I-I'm sorry, it..." Harry's voice trailed off as he saw who he crashed into. "Oh. It's you."  
  
Draco stood up, dusting his clothes off. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Potter, making trouble as usual. Well, what's new? I'm surprised he's not at home cowering. After all, the dark lord has come back. Or is Potter too perfect for hiding?"  
  
Harry narrowed his eyes and looked behind Malfoy. "Hmm, well, I see your dad's not here with you, and neither is your mum. I guess they were too busy taking orders from Voldemort, huh?" Before Malfoy could make a nasty reply to this last comment, Harry pushed his trolley through the wall and walked over to the luggage area of the car. Dropping off his trunk and Hedwig's cage, he jumped up into the nearest car and began the search for Ron and Hermione.  
  
Harry went around knocking on doors, automatically answering with "sorry" when an unfamiliar face opened the door and a "hello" when one of his friends opened up. Hearing a loud conversation from one of the compartments, Harry knocked on one and waited a little while. Getting no answer, he knocked once again, and a very unfamiliar face opened the door. In fact, the face looked as if it was too old to be in school, but Harry wasn't going to say anything about it.  
  
"Uh… Sorry." Harry began to say, as he was about to walk on to the next compartment, but when he heard Hermione cry "Harry!" he just tilted his head. The man in the door threw the door opened to reveal Hermione and Ron in the same compartment.  
  
"G'Day Mate Let me guess, Harry Potter? Your mates here have told me plenty about you, but then again, so have all my books..." The odd man spoke with a slight Australian accent, as though he had never gotten rid of it and had acquired part of an English accent (the result was a very heavy sounding English accent with the use of Australian vocabulary.) Hermione seemed lovestruck by him as she gazed at the back of his head, which had a very odd cut. His black hair was very long in the front, but almost a buzz cut in the back. His skin was tanned, and his eyes were an olive green, yet a bright green at the same time. Ron cleared his throat and shrugged. "Well, Harry, this is Matt. He's going to be interviewed for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job."  
  
Hermione sighed as Harry took a seat next to Matt. Ron seemed disgusted by Hermione's actions, but, if he were thinking the same thing as Harry, he would have been happy that her crush wasn't somebody like Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry stretched and looked Matt up and down. "So, Matt, if you don't mind my asking, how many people are trying out for the job?"  
  
Matt grinned, then shrugged. "Well, I hope not too many, because I'd love to get this job. Of course-" he added this when the others started to look doubtful- "I'm not getting my hopes up, but Dumbledore always told me I was very enthusiastic about Defense Against the Dark Arts and if he was ever in need he would contact me to be the teacher... Of course, I never thought he actually meant it… Anybody else hungry? I'll go get some food then..." The other three passengers watched as Matt left before discussing their soon-to- be teacher.  
  
"Isn't he dreamy?" Hermione sighed as she watched him leave. "Of course, I don't like him or anything but... he must be somewhere around the age of twenty. I hope he's our teacher, he's so nice. He was telling us how he had just bought his new car. Isn't that nice? He lives around muggles and can drive a car and everything! He's slightly slow, though. You see, he's a very good apparater, apparated to King's Cross Station you see, but he didn't even think of apparating to Hogsmeade instead of taking the train, that way he wouldn't be so late for his interview."  
  
Harry glanced to Ron, who just shrugged. "Well, he is nice, and he was treating us like equals... Definitely not a Lockhart, that guy, although he will have the same amount of trouble, if not more, of keeping all the girls off him. You know, one of our topics was talking about how You-Know-Who had come back to power, and he didn't even shudder when it came to saying his name. He grew up in a wizarding family, you know, just around muggles and stuff. He's had a muggle education and a wizard's education... you know he said he felt comfortable saying You-Know-Who's name because Dumbledore was comfortable about it. That was cool." Ron trailed off as Matt walked in with an armful of candy.  
  
"Aright, mates, 'ere we go, take whatever you please s'long as you leave me a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, you gotta love those Every Flavor Beans."  
  
The rest of the trip to Hogwarts consisted of trading flavors of beans and stories of past experiences with them, and Matt's story of a Blood Flavor one was by far the best. The story ended with Matt thinking he had lost a chunk of his tongue and used a tongue-growing spell, producing a five-foot tongue for a week.  
  
When the train came to a stop, Matt opened to door and let the others out first. As they grabbed their luggage, Matt apologized for leaving them but he was already late for his interview as it was ("Don't worry, Matt, we'll be hoping you're our first class the whole time we're in the Great Hall.") and ran towards one of the carriages which took off as soon as he slammed the door.  
  
The castle was exactly as he remembered. The lake with the small cabin and forest on one side, the mountains in the background, and the towering castle itself. The hundreds of torrets, millions of windows, the whole aura of amazement and wonder that surrounded it. No doubt about it, Hogwarts was the best wizardry school out there, both in looks and in content.  
  
Shaking his head as the carriage came to a stop, Matt dug through his trunk and took out his wand (Dragon Heartstring, Ash, 7 inches). Pointing it at the trunk, he said in a deep voice, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The trunk floated up and he directed it up the stairs, bringing it to a halt at the doorway. Going up the stairs three at a time, Matt straightened up his hair and robes then pushed the doors opened.  
  
"You're late." Albus Dumbledore smiled, but the other teachers seemed to be quite annoyed with this. Matt grinned and shrugged, then followed Dumbledore into his office, once again hoping against hope that punctuality wouldn't be an important factor. 


End file.
